One more portion of the roiled regional sports networks ecosystem has been resettled. 

Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday announced that they will become joint owners, along with the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins, of RSN SportsNet Pittsburgh, starting Jan. 1. 

New England Sports Network (NESN), which like the Penguins is owned by Fenway Sports Group, will oversee day-to-day management of the channel

The agreement comes after media giant Warner Bros. Discovery abandoned several local sports cable channels, branded as "AT&T SportsNet," that it reluctantly inherited amid the $43 million spinoff and merger that created the conglomerate two years ago. 

The Penguins already agreed to purchase the channel late last summer. The Pirates had been working with MLB to explore alternative broadcast options, with the league already dealing with a number of RSN refugee teams cast out amid the bankruptcy of Bally Sports channels operator Diamond Sports Group. 

Also read: Warner Sets RSN Exit Plan, Will Sell AT&T SportsNet Channels in Pittsburgh and Houston to Local Pro Teams, Shutter Rocky Mountain

“Above all else, this was the right thing to do for our fans,” Pirates president Travis Williams said in a statement. “From the outset of this process, the most important thing to us was to ensure that our fans have the same level of access to Pirates game telecasts and the same high-quality production that they enjoy today. This agreement accomplishes that and more as we enable Pittsburgh sports fans to continue to enjoy a two-team, 24/7 sports channel.”

Added Sean McGrail, president and CEO of NESN: "We are thrilled that the Pirates are joining the SportsNet Pittsburgh partnership. Over 150 Pirates games in addition to the Penguins telecasts makes SportsNet Pittsburgh a must-have destination for Pirates fans."

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the channel's on-air, live-game crew will remain the same, with play-by-play announcers Greg Brown and Joe Block, as well as the rotating cast of color commentators including Bob Walk, John Wehner, Neil Walker, Matt Capps and Kevin Young.

The channel will continue to operate out of the same North Shore studios that were used for AT&T SportsNet, as well as previous iterations of the channel that include "Root Sports" and FSN Pittsburgh.

The Pirates are still figuring out how to program all the pregame and postgame time slots, as well as the abyss that is the rest of the day.

The Pirates generated a reported $50 million - $60 million from their legacy relationship with AT&T SportsNet -- a local TV rights revenue figure that was considered high, given the team's market profile. 

It's considered unlikely they'll match that with the new configuration. 

KCAL Los Angeles will air six Los Angeles Kings NHL games this season, while KDKA Plus in Pittsburgh, also part of CBS News and Stations, will broadcast two Pittsburgh Penguins preseason hockey games. 

Bally Sports West will produce the Kings telecasts on KCAL. Kings games were on KCAL, then known as KHJ, from 1967 to 1985, and in 1998-1999. 

“Everyone at KCAL and CBS Los Angeles is honored to be reunited with the L.A. Kings,” Joel Vilmenay, KCBS-KCAL president and general manager. said. “We are excited to enter into this mutually beneficial relationship with the team, which includes helping the Kings expand their reach on television and in the community, and also establishing a new marketing relationship that benefits the team and also adds value to our stations. In addition to the game broadcasts, we look forward to airing several half-hour specials over the course of the season and providing comprehensive coverage in our local sportscasts. This truly is a win for all concerned, especially Kings fans.”

Also Read: Warner Sets RSN Exit Plan, Will Sell AT&T SportsNet Channels in Pittsburgh and Houston to Local Pro Teams, Shutter Rocky Mountain

KDKA Plus, the on-air brand used by station WPKD Pittsburgh, will have the September 24 Penguins preseason game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets, at 1 p.m. and the September 28 game with the Buffalo Sabres, at 7 p.m. 

WPKD was The CW affiliate in Pittsburgh, known as WPCW, until it went independent September 1. It’s the sister station to CBS owned-and-operated KDKA. 

“Partnering with the Pittsburgh Penguins — a world-class organization — is another shining example of KDKA-TV’s commitment to serving the people of southwestern Pennsylvania more and better local content,” KDKA president and general manager Chris Cotugno said. “This move provides our region with a powerful platform to host unique and in-demand content for our viewers. We plan to continue to seek opportunities to provide programming focused on local sports, programming and entertainment, in addition to creating original local content and KDKA-TV News to air on KDKA Plus.”

Other local sports programming on KDKA Plus includes Steel City High School Football Showcase on Friday nights and D3 College Football on Saturdays. 

Back in February, Warner Bros. Discovery told its professional sports team partners that it wanted to divest the three AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks it reluctantly inherited amid the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. 

Seven months later, a clearer exit strategy has emerged, as outlined by Sports Business Journal's John Ourand.

WBD has agreed to sell AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh to Fenway Sports Group, which owns one of the channel’s anchor tenants, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. 

WBD is also in talks to sell AT&T SportsNet Houston to that channel’s foundational teams, the NBA's Houston Rockets and Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. 

AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, which recently saw the NBA’s Utah Jazz and NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights depart to local-station broadcast TV deals, will shutter. 

WBD will, however, retain a sliver of skin in the fast-declining RSN business, serving as 29% owner of Seattle’s Root Sports Network, with that channel’s principal team, baseball’s Seattle Mariners, being the majority owner. 

The moves clarify WBD's exit from the RSN business, but plenty of questions remain for the numerous individual teams involved. 

Fenway Sports Group, for example, operates one of the more profitable RSNs still around, New England Sports Network (NESN). And SBJ says it's likely that SportsNet Pittsburgh will launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service around the Penguins, much as NESN has around its tenants, the MLB's Boston Red Sox and NHL's Boston Bruins. 

We could be witnessing the emergence of a powerful go-to sports streaming technology shop in regard to the Ted Leonis-backed ViewLift, which last week announced that it will be handling the tech for the Vegas Golden Knights’ new DTC venture. It was also reported at the time that ViewLoft would likely take on the Penguins’ DTC effort, as well.

Meanwhile, two MLB teams under the AT&T SportsNet umbrella, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies, will be searching for new RSN homes once baseball's regular season ends next month. 

The Pirates have the option of cutting a deal with Fenway, or the team could follow the path carved out by MLB rivals the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, which were both abandoned by Bally Sports operator Diamond Sports Group when the subsidiary went into Chapter 11 restructuring earlier this year. 

Both the Padres and the Diamondbacks chose to let Major League Baseball set them up with pay TV production and distribution for new channels operated by the league itself. SBJ said these channels pay the teams revenue adding up to about 80% of what they were getting with their old Bally Sports contracts.

The Rockies have the same MLB option, but the team reportedly can also choose to move over to the Stan Kroenke-backed Altitude Sports, home of the NBA defending champion Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche. 

The Rockies are viewed by some as a critical addition that might convince Comcast to finally reintegrate the Altitude RSN back into its program guide after dumping the channel four years ago. 

Sports oriented streaming service fuboTV has reached an agreement to carry AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh Region, the TV home of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates.

The regional sports network will be available ahead of the start of the 2020/21 NHL season.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“As a sports-first live TV streaming platform, our goal is to offer consumers regional sports networks with leading local market position and full team coverage, at pricing customers can afford,” said Ben Grad, head of content strategy and acquisition for fuboTV. “Therefore, we are excited to bring full home coverage of Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins to their fans with our new agreement with AT&T Sports Networks. fuboTV is now a great choice for sports fans in Pittsburgh and, with our leading live sports, news and entertainment content portfolio, there is something for everyone at home to watch and enjoy.”

AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh's coverage includes over 225 live regular season games of both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as other ancillary programming and behind the scenes content. The RSN is available throughout the states of Pennsylvania and West Virginia and in portions of New York, Ohio and Maryland.

The agreement increases fuboTV’s local coverage in Pittsburgh, where it already carries CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates alongside national sports networks including ESPN, FS1, CBS Sports Network and the ACC Network.

“We are thrilled to announce this deal with fuboTV and give fans even more options to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins in their home market,” said Nina Kinch, VP of affiliate relations for AT&T Sports Networks. “Both teams have enormous fan bases and we have had a lot of demand to bring these teams to OTT providers. We are very excited that customers will now have that option with fuboTV.”

FuboTV will carry AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh as part of its base fubo subscription package, fubo Standard.